November is a busy month for everyone and it was been busy for Club Woolly, too! Club Woolly nights for the world premieres of Current Nobody and Josh Lef
But December brings the long awaited return of One Man Star Wars to Woolly Mammoth. A one man, highly energetic and entertaining show, performer Charles Ross condenses all 3 Star Wars movies into 75 minutes that are not to be missed. Don’t believe us? Chec
Does this leave you wanting more? Chec
Recently, our Artistic Director
People talk about a “Woolly” play, but what is it? Well, it’s no single thing, but generally includes two or three of the following: originality of voice (e.g. Sarah Ruhl’s DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE), unusual narrative structure (e.g. Noah Haidle’s VIGILS), heightened theatricality (e.g. David Greenspan’s SHE STOOPS TO COMEDY), challenging or provocative subject matter (e.g. Craig Wright’s GRACE), and/or characters from the margins of the culture rather than the center (e.g. IN THE BLOOD).
Above all, we believe that the audience has its own job to do in the theatre – they have to sort something out, or think about something in a new way, or struggle with their feelings in response to provocative images. If you spoon feed the audience, if you take their job away and put them in a totally comfortable, passive role – what’s in it for them?
Artistic Directors from other companies come up to me at theatre conferences and say, “I sure wish my theatre could do the kinds of plays you do at Woolly Mammoth – we’d probably lose half our audience.” And it’s true, at Woolly we have a remarkable degree of artistic freedom – but I think it’s a freedom we’ve earned. By sticking to our own vision, we have developed a cadre of actors and other theatre artists who are especially skilled at pulling off certain kinds of plays, and an audience that appreciates them and wants to see more.
What do you think makes Woolly Mammoth so special? Leave us a comment with your thoughts!
For those of you who missed it, Club Woolly night for The Unmentionables, it was a great night. Members got their member packets (including a swanky lapel pin) and proceeded to the classroom where they mixed and mingled with the cast and our Artistic Director
We have some other exciting news. Dawn Ursula, who is currently playing Aunty Mimi so brilliantly in the The Unmentionables, has accepted an invitation from our Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz to become the newest member of the Woolly Mammoth acting company. Her previous appearances at Woolly Mammoth were in STARVING and THE VELVET SKY. Dawn is a dynamic and versatile performer, and the most wonderful collaborator and colleague imaginable. We hope you will join us in congratulating Dawn when you have the chance. She’s here in The Unmentionables through September 30.
One of the perks of joining Club Woolly is getting an insider look into Woolly Mammoth productions. In February, we got our members together and took them on a tour of the theater and provided them with a behind the scenes look at Vigils. Hana Sellars, our technical director showed us the green room, the scene shop, the back of the sets where the cast had scrawled notes to one another… Here she is demonstrating how we kept Michael Russotto in a box without actually having to keep him in a chest for the majority of the play. Hana showed us the ropes… literally. We got to see a detailed demonstation of how Naomi Jacobson and Michael Russotto flew, including rigging and stagehands. Naomi & Michael also talked about their experiences working on the show, how they got everything together and how they managed to fly without getting airsick. It was an unforgettable experience and a fun way to see how shows come together. If you couldn’t make it, you missed a great time!
It’s getting to be pretty standard that there’s always one person who doesn’t pay attention to the “silence your cell phone” speech that is given before every performance at every theater. It never fails that during a dramatic moment of any play, someone’s phone rings. I can think of at least two occasions where someone answered their phone and held a conversation in the theatre, while the actors (attempted to) continue acting. When you’re doing a play about cell phone etiquette, these interruptions are still funny and rude, but also rather ironic.
On our opening night on June 10th, Howard Shalwitz gave our preshow speech and ended with “In a show about cell phones, I feel like I don’t even have to say it… in fact I won’t say it.” The next day, our Communications Director received this email from a patron:
I don't make this stuff up.
So about 20 minutes into Act I, I hear a cell phone ring... and it is not coming from the speakers where the sound cue cell phone rings are. And someone in the audience answers the phone. Another person in the row behind me says, "I'm over here,
So, don’t forget to turn off your cell phone! If you haven't seen Dead Man's Cell Phone yet, you're not too late! We've just extended (twice) through July 14th.
Friday was Club Woolly night for Woolly’s smash hit, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, as well as our press night. It was a great performance with a lot of energy and the reception was a lot of fun, too! We decked out our reception room with some lost props – things that were created for the production but weren’t used for various reasons. Howard spoke a bit about the process of creating the show and why the larger than life portrait of Rick Foucheux didn’t make it on stage. After that, cast and crew mingled with our Club Woolly members and enjoyed some wonderful food and drink. Strangely, no one attempted to eat the prop suckling pig that was our centerpiece, though one Club Woolly member did mention that he was going to a pig roast this weekend. Unfortunately, he’s a vegetarian and won’t be able to partake in the pig.All in all, it was a fun time with some excellent food. I hope we can see you at the next one! And if you want to see what the press has to say, check out today's review in the Washington Post!
(Pictured: Naomi Jacobson, Polly Noonan & Sarah Marshall. Photo by Stan Barouh)
No, this isn’t an entry about our show Vigils which played during the month of February to great success. That show was about a Widow who was learning to grieve from her husband’s death and trying to move on, while keeping his soul locked in a box. It was a wonderful show and it’s appropriate that it was the last show for our former Managing Director
While news of this move has been common knowledge for a while, I’ve found that many people are unaware of what Kevin did and the tremendous impact he had on our theater. Howard is the face of Woolly Mammoth and one that our subscribers have come to know and love. Howard built Woolly from the ground up and the theatre won’t be the same without him when he retires (hopefully a day in the far, far future). But while Howard made the artistic choices that put us on the map, Kevin was the one who kept the theater moving. From getting sure everyone got their paychecks on time to being the leader of our multi-million dollar campaign to land us in our beautiful new space, Kevin did it all.
We’re in the midst of interviewing candidates for Kevin’s replacement and it’s an exciting time… we don’t know who we’ll get or how they’ll shape Woolly Mammoth in years to come, but we’re sure they’ll be wonderfully woolly! And hopefully, we’ll still get paid on a regular basis.
